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Tuesday, 9 February 2016

Reality: What It's Like To Buy a House On Your Own

This is pretty much me!!

So I've bought a flat! Yes not a house as the title would lead you to suggest, but that sounds more grand doesn't it?! No, I've bought a flat and having waited in anticipation for it all to go through I finally got the keys 2 Friday's ago.

I know people say moving house etc is stressful, but I'm a pretty impatient person so I was double stressed and anxious, when your doing it all on your own you aren't really sharing that feeling with anyone else. And the stress doesn't stop the minute you get the keys, not if you've bought a project like mine, but now it's a different kind of stress. A stress that's half fun but kind of all consuming.

I plan to actually move in in a couple of weeks time, seeing as I'm in the process of renovating a place that hasn't been touched since 1978, but I thought I would share some of the realities of being a first time buyer and going solo in the process.

Becoming a master of dates

No unfortunately not the fun kind....not yet! Never in my life have I had to remember so many dates. I've gotten so much use out of my calendar app it's unbelievable and god forbid I don't set an alert on each and every entry, otherwise I would forget everything. I can't even begin to think how mothers with families remember birthdays, play dates, house maintenance dates etc. My mind is well and truly boggled! Thank you Iphone for reminding me I need to get my ass to the flat before I miss yet ANOTHER delivery!

The guilt

Because I have such a project on my hand, I feel so guilty about taking an evening off just to myself. As a result I've let the gym slip and have felt rubbish for it. So if I can't find time in the evenings to go, I may as well get back to my morning gym sessions. That's a win win, no guilt and getting the exercise in.

When you think it will be all Pinspired and it's not

As much as I thought it would be, my flat isn't inspired by Pinterest, and nor do I think it will end up looking Pinterest worthy by the time it's all done however much I had hoped. Instead it's been a case of choosing a colour pallet, mine is grey, and finding items here and there that you THINK will look good together. When everything is piled up in the spare room it's hard to imaging what it will all look like when it's in it's rightful place. Fingers crossed for me that it won't look like a non chic mismatch of things dumped in a room.

God forbid you run out of tea and biscuits

I've had to have builders, delivery men, friends and work men round for various reasons. The first, and in their eyes, most important thing for me to have in the flat from the moment I got the keys was tea and milk, and if your lucky chocolate biscuits. Fluttering your eyes won't get you far, but giving people tea and biscuits...you might just get a favour or two.

Hemorrhaging money

So it was always going to be expensive, but you'll never really anticipate just HOW expensive. I literally find myself asking myself how long I can live of pasta and sauce for in exchange for things like bedside tables etc. Also keeping a spreadsheet has been my savior, money seems to leave my account in the hundreds on a daily basis, knowing where it's being spent is essential so that I don't feel like I'm just flushing it down the drain.

Taking some 'me time'

I've found this pretty hard but it's completely necessary. I'm so overwhelmed taking this whole project on solo that it's important to take a step back and realise just how lucky I am and what an opportunity it is. Once the dust has settled, living alone will give me a lot of me time that I think I actually need. I've always wanted to live alone in a place to call mine, and it's finally here. Let's just hope reality matches expectation.

I'll post up some before and afters by the end of the month when hopefully you'll be able to see just where I've been hiding for so long!